Miami Dolphins’ Patrick Laird on Brian Flores, Ryan Fitzpatrick

And yeah, yet a stellar college career averaged five yards for per carry, which is a hell of a carry and then you go on to the NFL, you went undrafted ended up signing with the Miami dolphins a team that we’ve covered extensively here at TSC and there were not many expectations for this team there were a lot of trades made a lot of various off-season and mid-season moves everybody said, oh, they’re going maybe one game if they’re lucky you guys ended up finishing five and 11 and ending on a high note. You upset the philadelphia eagles, which was a huge win and then of course in the final week, which you were miked up for you guys beat the new england Patriots, which more or less kind of sent them into a tail spin before losing to the Tennessee titans.

Can you talk about just about that whole journey of the 2019 season. Not having any real expectations put forth on yourself. And the team and being able to kind of finish things strong? Yeah, I mean, I think all the guys in the organization. Are, you know, they’re competitive and you know, we love playing football. We don’t go out there to lose and so you hear the noise on the outside, but it’s just not something you focus on. And yeah, we just kind of put our head down and work stuck to the process and ended up getting some good wins towards the end of the season.

And so those are always fun they’re rewarding. And that’s something that we want to build on going forward. But yeah, it is one of those things where, you know, when you stick to something and it’s really tough and it doesn’t give you the results that you want early on, but you know, you’re doing the right thing. And then eventually the results come. It’s kind of a very gratifying feeling. So, I think a lot of guys were stoked about that. But obviously a couple games that we left on the field that we really want to get, you know, this upcoming season. So that’s just something we’re going to be focused on focusing on going forward?

Did it help being able to play with guys that were kind of in a similar position to you some guys were undrafted some guys were unheralded and overlooked and all with the chip on their shoulder. I think there’s an aspect to that? Yeah, I mean, I think I don’t know the exact numbers, but I know there’s a lot of undrafted guys that we’re playing. So. But you know, obviously you need talent to win NFL football games, but talent isn’t everything a lot of it’s culture how disciplined you are as a team how tough you are how smart you are as a team. And so, you know, we had a lot of guys come in and out this season.

And so I think we’re just looking for guys that fit that mentality and I’m hoping to be one of those guys over the, you know, the next few years and play as long as I can and kind of just fill whatever role that the coaches ask of me. There’s a infamous story at the beginning of the season actually prior to the season where you were mistaken as the intern of the Miami dolphins. And that’s led to you having the nickname as the intern. Can you tell us a little bit about that story? Yeah. So I wasn’t necessarily mistaken as an intern? The stories kind of got twisted around a bit, but basically the gist of the story is I go into the dining Hall or cafeteria area to eat and there wasn’t many players in there.

So I just sat down with one of the operations guys that I knew and we’re just kind of talking. And then some of the operations interns that were there that summer come and sit with us. And so, you know, they’re still college students. I’m asking them questions. Oh, how’s it going here how do you like Florida. You know what do you study in college. What are you interested in and after about 10 minutes one of them looks at me and he says. So, what do you do here and I was like, well, I’m on the team and he was like shocked and he was very apologetic.

He thought he offended me, but I wasn’t offended in any way. But anyway, so I tell that story to the team because sometimes the rookies get called down tell a joke sing a song or tell a story. So, I told that story thinking. It was pretty funny and ever since then some of the offensive coaches started referring to me as the intern and kind of went from there. Hey, there’s worse nicknames. Yeah. And you had an awesome career highlight the first career touchdown in your NFL run against the philadelphia eagles how’d it feel to get in that end zone and finally accomplish that goal. It was awesome.

There’s no feeling like scoring a touchdown in a football game. I remember you know, my first touchdown in youth football. It’s like I don’t know how to describe it’s just like this the best feeling in the world. And then, you know, obviously when I did it in college. It was awesome. And then to do in the NFL was like extremely surreal. It’s just not many people get the opportunity to do that it meant a lot for our team. So I was just really happy to help us get that win against the eagles you play with of course Ryan Fitzpatrick a guy who is a veteran he seems like a pretty easygoing guy also a fiery competitor on the field.

He has an epic beard he’s a guy that’s not afraid to use his legs despite the fact that he’s been in the NFL for over. Well over a decade now to decade and a half and has taken his fair share of licks. What’s it like playing with fitz? It’s awesome. You kind of everyone sees on TV, how competitive he is. It’s one of the first things people always say is, you know, he just looks fun to play with and that’s the closest thing to the truth. It’s he’s a super fun guy to play with and he’s a good dude. In general family, man. Good leader and always willing to help the young guys.

But yeah, when he’s out in the field. He’s just making plays and just, you know, running the ball throwing the ball. It’s super fun to play with and he’s also, you know, of course, very smart. And he uses his smarts to, you know, game plan against the opponent even during the game. So he’ll just he’ll see things and kind of just tell you to, you know, maybe run around differently or, you know, whatever it is. And so he’s an extremely fun guy to play with you’ve had a chance to play with two guys with an extensive defensive background justin wilcox. Cow and then of course, Brian floyer’s former defensive coordinator of the Patriots now the head coach of the emmanuel dolphins.

Can you just talk about the positive influence. They’ve had on you. Yeah. So I mean, when I got into college. We had an offensive minded head coach and I thought I was like as a offensive player. I thought it’d be the only that’s the best way to go. But then when we hired coach wilcox my junior going into my junior season. I realized that offensive or defensive minded coaches whatever it is it doesn’t matter about, you know, which side of the ball, they might secretly root for during practice. It’s all about just the leader they are and the type of standard they set and I’d say actually both coaches are very similar in that they have a certain, you know way that they want the game to be played.

They want smart tough disciplined players and they kind of harp on that every day and you know, it’s not some secret play or scheme. That’s going to beat another team. It’s going to be just the stuff you do every day in practice leading up to the games the preparation. They stress very similar things and I love that type of leadership. And so very very fortunate to kind of to be coached by both. Those those guys, not only were you a student athlete graduating business school doing your thing on the football field for cal, but also running an awesome program called walk on then run submarine challenges for kids positively impacting young lives.

Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. So going into my senior season is when I decided, you know, I want to play football professionally. So in the prior summers. I had done internships. And those sorts of things. And I said, you know, I’m just going to focus on football this summer, but you know, there’s only so many hours a day that you can work out and so I said, you know, with my extra time. I should do something that I enjoy doing and kind of positively impact the community. And during my junior season. I had done this touchdown celebration where I would pretend to read a book and it’s kind of another story but so the cow fans had learned that I, you know, love football like playing football, but I also enjoy school and enjoy reading.

And so I formed a program pitched it to cal athletics. They got on board and we started the first summer reading challenge and kids read four to six books. They filled out a journal and they brought the journal to our first game of the season and they got four free tickets for them and their family and we did it this past season as well. And hopefully we’re gonna do it moving forward people, of course can check that out online walk on then run dot com. Great stuff, man, that’s a really great cause. Now, we have some rapid fire questions some really random questions just for some people to get to know you better.

Are you ready? All right. Favorite spot in Miami. Favorite spot in Miami does it have to be in the city. Oh, you know what I went to joe’s stone crab with my girlfriend and that was super good. So, I’m gonna go with joe’s stone crab. I know it’s probably cliche, but it’s good food. What’s your favorite cheat meal cheeseburger with jalapenos and French fries. I like the sound of that. Who is your funniest teammate and why I say Jamal wilts is my candidate for funniest teammate. You wouldn’t expect it just kind of he’s kind of a quiet quiet low-key guy, but every once in a while he just kind of like has these like you know, one sentence funny things.

He says during meetings or in the locker room? I just I think he’s a hilarious guy. There’s a number of players on your team that have facial hair you of course stand out for being perfectly clean-shaven have you thought about growing a fits-like beard at one point I can’t grow facial hair enough to pull off a beard and every once in a while when I have it shaving for a few days people see my hair start to come through and I actually have a very Red beard. And it kind of throws people off. So, every time someone just like they’ll say like, oh, you have like Red hair growing on your face.

It’s just kind of like throws people off. So, I don’t think I could really pull it off maybe in a couple years when more hair starts to come in? No disrespect to people with Red hair. What’s your earliest football memory earliest football memory, probably if so I started playing in fifth grade. I was kind of late, but I was going to say my first touchdown I played defensive end and tight end in youth football like that was what I played and I was on a really good team. And so, they took out, you know, how like if you’re up by a certain amount. They can take out a couple players.

So, they took out our running backs and they put me in a running back and the very first time I touched the ball, I broke a couple tackles and scored a touchdown. So, I’d say that’s probably my earliest memory.